Technical Ever have trouble with Coker Tires?

Has anyone ever had trouble with tires you got from Coker? I feel I am beginning to get the run around. We recently purchased some P215/75R15 Coker Classic wide whites for a 58 Edsel. I have the latest technology in wheel balancing equipment that also measures the side wall stiffness. It shows large amounts (over 30 Lbs RFV) that can't be lessened by moving it on the wheel. The tires were also taking what I consider to be large amounts of weight to dynamic balance, roughly 6 oz or more total. I was only happy with one of the four. It took 2 oz of weight and had 13 Lbs RFV. I called and they did agree to send three more but charged the credit card for them. Two of the replacements came out OK. One was 4 lb RFV (EXCELLENT!) and took 2 oz weight. The other after indexing on the rim came out at 20Lb RFV and took 2 oz weight. The last tire shows 36Lb RFV and the machine predicts I can get it down to 30 by moving it on the rim....still too much to me (especially when the others are way less) it also wants 5.75 oz weight. I want replaced but they want me to run it. I sent the three (original purchase) back over a week ago. They did get the tires but have lost the RFV numbers so I have to resend it. I've not seen the credit yet and in fact have purchased 7 tires so far. Has anyone every had trouble like this?

 

Coker has a monopoly on white wall tires and Corky Coker being a car guy, one would assume that Corky would be more concern about his products and customer service.

 

I have bought 6 complete sets of tires from Coker,,never any problems but Coker is like any other tire company and can have a bad production batch every now and then.

I have had tires in the past from other huge names in the tire industry that need a lot of weights to balance.

Good luck. HRP

 

there are some more mainstream brands that also sport some whitewall, though not as pronounced as coker. check my 59 edsel build, i found some $50 /ea tires that fit my car well and look similar to the cokers

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I've dealt with Coker for probably 30 years and have bought NUMEROUS sets of tires from them. Never an issue. Biggest problem we ever had was a new wheel that had some runout and they promptly sent a new one and told me to scrap the bad one.

I think you are trying to put modern specs onto tires that were never meant to be that exact. Most of us (me included) have them mounted and balanced, and then we put thousands of troublefree miles on them. Not to be too critical, but I think you are over thinking the situation. Mount them and then see what you have, I bet they will be fine. Also have a little patience, it takes time sometimes to get things through the system.

Don

 

sometimes new technology just doesn't apply to old school. If it did, you wouldn't be running WWW tires to begin with. I've had good luck with micro-beads in badly out of balance tires....works for me.

 

I ordered wide whites directly from Coker to put on my '59 Wagon in 2010 and bubble balanced them myself. I had two tires that hopped like a rabbit at 55mph so took it to my favorite tire shop and even after dynamic balance couldn't get the hop out of the same two tires with 8+ oz of weight. I paid for the "Road Force" measurement ($25 each) and two tires were way out of modern day "spec". Called Coker, they sent two replacments that were much better. Got my card refunded within a few weeks. In hind sight, the tire shop I took them to would have been much cheaper for the same tires after the extras I had to pay for, and the problem would have been on their nickel according to the manager there.
Training isn't free. They sure look good.

 

Thanks for the input. I understand old school thought and old car suspension but.... According to Coker this is a tire that should perform like any other top quality tire made today. They are over $200 each. You guys are right, sometimes that batch wasn't mixed/cured/ or what ever exactly like it maybe should have been and inferior products are produced.....it happens. The one tire I kept from my first purchase was a different build date than the other three. Same date on the three that were sent for replacement as what I sent back. Todays equipment was designed to find these problems and it makes our old rides feel better going down the road.

 

If you've ever seen a tire being laid up by hand on a lathe, you'd be surprised they don't actually come out worse. It takes a certain touch to lay them up right.

 

Sorry, that's not correct...Coker does not have a monopoly...they have a good portion of the business, however, Diamondback tires have a portion of it and produce whitewalls, which are, IMHO, much better than Cokers.

R-

 

I just bought the same set from them but haven't mounted them yet. I hope mine work out as they weren't cheap and I can't afford to get caught up in that kinda mess.

 

Cosmic12... I do think having all wheels balanced on a machine that measures sidewall stiffness (RFV) is the best way to go right from the start. In some applications, typically the heavier old cars, you might not even feel a high RFV value. You wont know until you try. In my case the tires that had high stiffness also were taking lots of weight. And as you said at the price.... I knew it could be better.

 

Coker doesn't actually manufacture any tires. They contract with various foreign and domestic private label tire manufacturers to have their tires made. Its not surprising that some people seem to have good luck with Coker tires while others have complaints since there will always be quality variations depending on where the particular tire is made.

You can tell where and by who a particular tire was actually made by looking at the DOT tire identification number molded into the sidewall. The id always starts with DOT. You need to look at the next two symbols following DOT. They may be a pair of numbers, a pair of letters, or a combination of a number and a letter. They identify both the mfgr and the plant where the tire was made.

Once you have that, you can go to http://www.harriger.com/tires.htm and look up the code to find out where your tires were made and who made them.

 

How long do these tires last for $200 a pop?

These tires look nice on a trailer queen, but I really can't imagine you'd get any mileage out of them.

Even assuming they use modern rubber compounds and the touhest cord materials, I'd still be surprised if they made it 20k miles, and any modern V-8 would send a set of those 7.00's up in smoke faster than you can say Federal Excise Tax.

 

very useful link, thank you.

 

You must be really lucky .. I think I have only ever had 4 round cokers .. Ever ...in 15 years

 

I had a Silvertown go wobbly on me 18 months after purchase. They replaced it for free and paid for shipping both ways.

 

but when you have a monopoly and you sell so many, the ones that are found to be faulty and a lot are I'd guess due to the number of complaints heard and threads etc etc, that number probably still falls into a small percentage. I'm just guessing, no facts.

 

All tire companies make reject tires. It just happens.

But the difference is that the good companies sort out the rejects before they leave the factory. They don't need lawsuits when your tire blows. They don't want a bad reputation.

If these contract outfits are just shipping everything without real quality control, and relying on Coker to sort out the rejects, then the onus is on Coker.

I think the fact that most of his product gets mounted to trailer queens and slow leadsleds tends to limit the liability for tire failures.

But honestly I don't know. I've never used Coker products, but have been in the process of choosing new tires and wheels from their site.

I'd like to hear from people who have really driven on these tires and got good mileage and handling, as well as from the ones who've had troubles.

 

I bought 2 Silvertown 5.90-15 for the front of my car. I used them to hold the car while it was being restored at home so they were mounted on a set of brand new Cragar Super Sport wheels, and I would roll the car from bay to bay as needed.
I finally got the car road worthy 2 years after purchase, and when I drove the car for the first time I would swear the tires were square. They told me "No warranty two years after purchase". Basically $300.00 out the window.
I can drive the car locally, but anything over 45MPH you'd think the front fenders of the car were going to fly off.
NEVER again with Coker for me.

 

I totally agree that Coker does not have a monopoly,,if you are looking for bias ply they do have a big chunk of the pie.

The makers of Diamondbacks use a vulcanized process of adhering the whitewall to a radial tire,they have had problems also but it boils down to use what you like,,personally I am a bias ply kinda guy! HRP

 

i had some diamond backs. it took about six months to ship them and after two years the white wall started peeling off. had cokers to the first set was so screwed up they would not balance. they sent a new set after a big hassle. I'm not impressed with the latest set. one has a small bubble in the sidewall.

 

Aw, hell.

 

Having purchased many sets of Coker wide white wall bias ply tires I always find the same issues. Out of a set of four tires usually two have white walls that are way off center then there's the carbon transfer issues brown spots in the white walls. Balancing issues is also a problem. Sure they will take them back but only after they charge you for the replacements then you wait for the refund. Considering the cost for the tires the quality should be a lot better. The added expense of having the tires mounted and then taken off the rims and then mounting another set is an added cost we should not have to deal with. Quality is lacking plain and simple!

 

A few years ago I got some Firestone F60 from Coker to use on the front..They looked like the tread already had a wear pattern; two dips like the tires were run way low on air..Per chance they would look better aired I mounted them..No better, maybe even worse..Since mounting them was free I continued on to balance..They didn't take much weight at all but they didn't run very true [at least to me or my friend]..Had I known about tire shaving I would have seeked out someplace to do it..I decided to try them on the car and luckaly they behave ok..

 

I hope Cuckoo Tires is paying attention to this thread and maybe they'll start selling quality tires, but I doubt it.

 

Hmm, RFV, learn something new every day.

 

Yeah after reading all the problems with these WWW vendors plus the HIGH prices that you are stuck with, I went ahead and found a guy to shave some wide whites. Got a almost new set of Firestones shaved to 2 1/4" WW for $400 a set. I myself also like there to be some black rubber between the WW and the wheel like you end up with a shaved tire.

I just cant see spending $1100 on a set of tires that have a high rate of quality issues.

 

Maybe if more tire shops would shave tires the price of true whitewalls would come down because $250+ each is rediculous.


This is the way to go. Firestone destinations with almost no miles on them for under $100 each and I choose the width of the whitewall.

 

I've never had trouble with Coker Tires only because I've never bought any. Lots of other folks have had problems with their tires. With all the negative publicity Coker has had, why would anyone buy from them????